In the last decade, nanotechnologies and biomedicine have reached remarkable levels of integration and cross-fertilization aiming to address unmet clinical needs by designing functional materials and transformative technologies for precision medicine. We harness light-matter interaction at the nanoscale to develop tools and design artificial materials with fascinating properties mainly originating by form-function relationships to face global health challenges, as cancer and neurodegenerative diseases.
Among several others, hybrid nano-carriers, viral cargos, plasmonic metamaterials represent only a small fraction of a large variety of systems proposed to achieve local drug-delivery, photo-thermal and photodynamic therapies, high resolution imaging and sensing, stimulated specific immune response to treat and monitor neurodegenerative diseases and cancers.
In this context, we have developed miniaturized plasmonic biosensor platforms that outperform current sensing technologies and are based on hyperbolic metamaterials which support highly confined bulk plasmon modes. We have realized nanoplatforms for plasmon mediated phototherapies and virus-based bionanoparticles for advanced imaging.
References: (Among others see Publication list)
- Interface of Physics and Biology Bioconj. Chem. 26, 51−62 (2015)
- Plasmon Mediated Cancer Phototherapy Nanoscale DOI: 10.1039/c7nr05522f (2017)
- “Extreme sensitivity biosensing platform based on hyperbolic metamaterials” (2016) NATURE MATERIALS, 15, 621-627,
- Photonics and plasmonics go viral: self-assembly of hierarchical metamaterials” REND. FIS. ACC. LINCEI (2015)